Modern Horizons Collation

Modern Horizons is a large supplemental set with 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, and five basic snow lands. This is the normal size for a large set of this era. Foil cards are included in booster packs with advertised odds of 1 : 67 cards. The set was printed in English in the USA and Belgium.

Modern Horizons was sold in 15 card booster packs (which contain an additional token/ad card and an additional art card). Booster boxes have 36 packs.

There are two different US pack formats. One, which I will call "classic" similar to previous US printings of normal large sets (for instance, Guilds of Ravnica). The other is a "new" format. The most obvious difference is that the new format has the rare first and commons last (compared to the reverse in classic packs). Based on the numbers of videos I have seen, the new format is significantly more common.

Classic US Pack Anatomy

The classic US printing uses sequential collation with C1/C2 common collation.

Packs are back-facing and have 10 commons followed by 3 uncommons, a rare, a basic snow land, an art card, and an ad/token card. If there is a foil card, it will appear after the rare, displacing a common.

10 Commons	3 Uncommons	1 Rare	1 Land		1 Art Card	1 Ad Card
9 Commons	3 Uncommons	1 Rare	1 Foil	1 Land	1 Art Card	1 Ad Card

Packs are evenly split between C1 commons and C2 commons. C1 packs have 2-3 A cards, 2 B, and 4-5 C. C2 packs have 4 A cards, 2-4 B, and 2-4 C.

A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2

When a foil appears in a pack, it will displace a common card. Common foils displace A commons and only appear in C1 packs. Uncommon foils displace B commons. Rare foils displace C2 commons. Common foils appear 1 in every 8 packs. The uncommon and rare rates are not known exactly.

Common Runs

The A common run consists of 33 different cards each appearing twice. The cards are alternating white, red, and blue. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B common run consists of 22 different cards each appearing three times. The cards are alternating black and green. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The C1 common run consists of 27 different cards each appearing twice plus Universal Automaton, the short-printed common. It cards of all colors and colorless cards. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The C2 common run consists of 18 different cards each appearing three times plus Universal Automaton, the short-printed common. It cards of all colors and colorless cards. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

New US Pack Anatomy

The new US printing uses sequential collation with heavily modified C1/C2 common collation.

Packs are front-facing and have an ad/token card, an art card, and a basic snow land followed by a rare, three uncommons, and ten commons. If there is a foil card, it will appear before the rare, displacing a common. (This is the reverse of classic US pack order.)

1 Ad Card	1 Art Card	1 Land		1 Rare	3 Uncommons	10 Commons
1 Ad Card	1 Art Card	1 Land	1 Foil	1 Rare	3 Uncommons	9 Commons

There are still A, B, C1, and C2 common runs with the same structure as a normal C1/C2 common set. However, packs are not evenly split between C1 and C2. The exact pack structure rates are related to foil rates, so not known exactly, but using 2/9 for the total foil rate (plausible, as it equals 15/67.5), C1 packs should occur 5/9 of the time. Then, C1 packs will have 4-5 C cards followed by 2-3 B cards and 3-4 A cards. The same ranges apply if there is a foil, so C1 packs with foils are always 4-2-3. C2 packs always have 4 C cards with 2-3 B and 3-4 A again. And, again, the same ranges also apply to foils, so foil packs are still 4-2-3. We can calculate that the 4th A card appears in 1/5 of packs, the 3rd B card appears in 2/15 of packs, and the 5th C1 card appears in 4/5 of C1 packs. It is not known how 4th A cards, 3rd B cards, and foils are distributed between C1 and C2, but all combinations have been observed. (Consequently, foils must be more likely in C2 packs which seems to bear out empirically.)

A	A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2

Note that the common runs are the same as the corresponding common runs for the classic US printing, except backwards. (This, together with the reversed pack order, suggests that this printing might be back cut.) (This is probably the same for other runs as well.)

There are two uncommon runs, each with 40 distinct cards repeated three times each. Packs have either two B cards followed by an A, or one A followed by two B.

The art series cards are probably printed on two 10 × 10 sheets (with gutter cutting). There is one 100 card sequence with 50 cards each appearing twice. The remaining four cards are on the other sheet. Cards from the alternate sheet seem to appear one in every 14 packs which would make them slightly more rare. These cards are Ranger-Captain of Eos, Pashalik Mons, Winds of Abandon, and Headless Specter.

Common Runs

The A common run consists of 33 different cards each appearing twice. The cards are alternating white, blue, and red. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B common run consists of 22 different cards each appearing three times. The cards are alternating black and green. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Uncommon Runs

The A uncommon run consists of 40 different cards each appearing three times. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B uncommon run also consists of 40 different cards each appearing three times. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Art Series Runs

The primary art series run contains 50 distinct cards each twice. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary. (There is another run containing the remaining cards, but I don't know the full arrangement.)

Token Run

All of the marketing cards in Modern Horizons have a token or emblem on the front face. Some of the tokens are foil. These appear on a different sheet and have an ad on the back and appear in 1/4 of packs. The non-foil tokens have another token or emblem on the back. Currently, I don't have complete information on the back faces. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Note that for the non-foil tokens, many tokens or emblems can apparently only appear on the front or back, not both. (So, many tokens and all emblems never appear on the front.) The spider token is perhaps the only one that can appear on either sides.

Token Rarity
Spider × 2	Spirit × 2	Bird × 12
Elemental × 15	Zombie × 15	Illusion × 16
Shapeshifter × 18	Soldier × 19	Goblin × 22

Belgian Pack Anatomy

The Belgian printing uses sequential collation with simple two-run 101 common collation.

Packs are front-facing and have common-uncommon-rare ordering followed by a basic land, an art card, and an ad card. There are 10 commons, 3 uncommons, and 1 rare. If there is a foil card, it will appear after the land, displacing a common.

10 Commons	3 Uncommons	1 Rare	1 Land		1 Art Card	1 Ad Card
9 Commons	3 Uncommons	1 Rare	1 Land	1 Foil	1 Art Card	1 Ad Card

Each pack contains six cards from the A common run followed by four cards from the B run. Foils can displace a card from either run.

Common Runs

The A common run consists of 60 different cards each appearing twice plus Arcum's Astrolabe, the short-printed common (which is different than the US short print). There are cards are mostly white, red, and green. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B common run consists of 40 different cards each appearing three times plus Arcum's Astrolabe, the short-printed common. The cards are mostly blue and black. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2

A	A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2

A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2

A	A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2

A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2

A	A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2